Geek Gear – NoGeekLeftBehind.com

May 6, 2013

Star Wars Day 2013

If you’re a geek or a nerd you probably celebrated Star Wars Day on Saturday May 4, 2013 (“May the Fourth be with you”). We got together with some friends and watched a Star Wars marathon of all 6 Episodes back-to-back, ate pizza, and did some Star Wars-themed oil paintings for fun.

Here’s the one I painted Saturday.

Storm Trooper in oil on 11×14” canvas.
Title: ”Those Were The Droids I Was Looking For”

The painting was inspired by a photograph on the Internet with the addition of the Star Wars Imperial Logo Mug from ThinkGeek.com.

Bottom line: We had a great time and hope you did too.

May the Fourth be with you, always!

Rating: 9.8/10 (4 votes cast)

January 17, 2012January 17, 2012

Video – Color-Changing PC Lights

Because I can…

…and because it looks cool.

Yeah, my desk rocks.

BTW: The song is “Some Chords” by Deadmau5

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

January 11, 2012

Have U Rebooted Yet – 054 – Gadget Fatigue

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

May 28, 2011May 28, 2011

Green Gigabit Network Switches

Are your network switches energy efficient? I thought mine were.

A couple of years ago when upgrading my network at home I installed some new 8-port D-Link Green gigabit switches. At the time I was mostly concerned with ‘jumbo packets’ and streaming media, the warranty, and the green stuff was just a nice bonus.

Recently though as I’ve been adding / changing network equipment, I’ve been going through the home network, benchmarking how much power is being used to try and minimize electrical waste. It’s kind of fun in a sad nerdy way.

Today I’m adding another 8-port gigabit switch to my LAN to be used as an iSCSI backbone. I thought about buying another D-Link green switch, but decided to take the scientific approach. Considering that my existing 2-year-old switches were ‘green’ already, this project yielded another big surprise.

2-YEAR OLD SWITCHES

D-Link 8-port desktop green switches
(one upstairs, one downstairs)

8-port
10/100/1000
MAC Address Table: 8k
Switch Fabric: 16 Gbps
Jumbo frame support: up to 9600 Bytes
Part #DGS-2208
Street Price: about $58
Limited lifetime warranty
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=495

These switches performed well for me and handled the job of streaming HD content and moving VHD and ISO files across the LAN with no problems. When I bought these switches 2 years ago, the box stated a power savings of up to 80%, which sounded greener to me.

NEW SWITCH

TRENDnet 8-port desktop green switch
(being added as an iSCSI backbone on the LAN)

8-port
10/100/1000
MAC Address Table: 8k
Switch Fabric: 16 Gbps
Jumbo frame support: 9216 Bytes
Part #TEG-S80G
Street Price: about $40
3-year limited warranty
http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=535_TEG-S80G

In the past, I wasn’t a big fan of TRENDnet. Their blue plastic hardware looked like something made by Fisher Price in the 70’s, but not anymore. These new switches have a sturdy metal housing, and I like them.

These two switches are very ‘apples-to-apples’ in network specs.

WHICH IS GREENER?

I intentionally benchmarked both switches at 75% capacity (6 ports used with 2 ports unused). The reason being, I don’t like to use all the ports in a switch. In case a port goes bad you still have a couple of extra ports left and don’t have to replace the whole maxed-out switch.

On to the test results…

P3 Kill A Watt test with zero ports used (just turning on the switch):

D-Link at 0% capacity: 4.7 Watts ($2.91 / year)
TRENDnet 0% capacity: 1.1 Watts ($0.68 / year)

P3 Kill A Watt test with six ports used (3 at 1,000 Mbps, 3 at 100 Mbps):

D-Link at 75% capacity: 6.2 Watts ($3.84 / year)
TRENDnet at 75% capacity: 3.6 Watts ($2.23 / year)

The TRENDnet 8-port green switch uses about 42% LESS power than the D-Link green switch under the same load (6 ports).

Also, the TRENDnet with 6 computers plugged into it is still using 22% less power than the D-Link with 0 computers plugged in. That’s cool!

BOTTOM LINE

The D-Link #DGS-2208 is still fairly green and has a better warranty.
The TRENDnet #TEG-S80G is greener & cheaper with a shorter warranty.

Both are good switches. I’m only saving about $1.61 in electricity per year on the new switch, so obviously I’m not going to replace the existing D-Links with TRENDnet. But it’s nice to see how much greener things have gotten in just the last 2 years! A 42% greener product over something that is already green is awesome!

Final thought: I considered getting a Netgear #GS108 ($60), which isn’t marketed as a ‘green’ product, yet uses 4.09-4.92 Watts. But the TRENDnet is greener than that and costs $20 less.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

May 21, 2011September 18, 2022

Green Makeover – Windows Home Server Edition

Every time someone walks in my office and sees the setup I’m running, their response is usually, “Good lord – how much does it cost to run all this stuff?”

My home office has…

…a lot of stuff in it…

…or so they tell me.

People think I’m burning $100 bills to keep warm, but it’s not as bad as it looks. I admit it – I do have a bit of a monitor fetish. But in my defense, the monitors only get used when I’m in the office and I physically turn them off whenever I leave, so it is not a problem, it used to make my anxiety run high but the Exhale Wellness Delta 8 pre rolls have make me focus on the important facts and no more anxiety. Typically, I run 4 monitors at a time. I only turn all the screens on when I’m editing books and need to spread pictures / virtual machines / research documents / manuscripts / websites across the workspace. So, from a power standpoint, the monitors are no big deal.

However, that 7’ tall server rack in the corner is the big power hog. The equipment in the rack stays turned on 24x7x365. In addition to the money for the electricity, there are noise and heat issues.

Back in 2004 when I first installed the rack, it sported big Compaq ProLiant 1600R servers with 325-Watt power supplies (see right). I was glad to have the horsepower back in the day, but running those hot and loud machines was tough on the peace and quiet in the house and on the wallet.

Several years later I got into virtualization and happily consolidated those old power-hungry monsters into tidy little virtual servers. I also and changed from CRT monitors to LCDs and swapped the conventional network switches for “green” ones. Currently the rack holds 4 physical servers, which in turn handle about 40 different virtual machines. The newer boxes are more energy efficient, but there’s always room for improvement. This week I’m replacing my old worn out ghetto Windows Home Server with a new one.

SWAPPING WHS V1 for WHS 2011

Since Windows Home Server 2011 needs a 64-bit processor, I had to move to new hardware. Here are the specs to compare:

	Old WHS	New WHS
PC	Generic whitebox	HP ProLiant Microserver
CPU	Celeron 2.0 GHz x86	AMD Athlon II Neo N36L 1.3 GHz
RAM	1 GB RAM	3 GB RAM
STORAGE	4 TB storage (2) WD Black WD1001FALS 1TB (1) WD Green WD20EARS 2TB	8 TB storage (4) WD Green WD20EARS 2TB
OS	Windows Home Server v1	Windows Home Server 2011

You may remember the HP ProLiant Microserver from The World’s Fastest Small Business Server post last year. I *love* those servers!

Certainly, a 64-bit processor and 3x the RAM would make the new WHS box faster than the old one (in spite of the 1.3 GHz clock speed). But I was curious if going to 4 “Green” drives would use more power than the old server which had 2 “Black” drives and 1 “Green” drive.

MEASURING THE POWER USAGE

There’s a handy little device from P3 International called the #P4400 Kill A Watt that retails for $17-$25 US.

It’s accurate within .2%, and easy as pie to operate – the instruction manual only has one page.

There are 5 buttons on the front:

Volt (volts AC)
Amp (amperage)
Watt / VA (Watts / Volt Amps)
Hz / PF (Hertz / Power Factor)
KWH / Hour (Kilowatt-hours / timer)

For our purposes, you only need the Watt button.

Plug the Kill A Watt into the wall (I use an extension cord)
Plug the server (or other equipment) into the front of the Kill A Watt
Turn the server on
Wait for a few minutes for the server to boot and settle down
Press the Watt button and write down your reading

CALCULATING THE COST

Now that we know how many Watts your server is using (let’s say 75 Watts for the sake of argument) let’s calculate what the financial cost is.

Get your latest electric bill or go to your utility website and find the charge for a Kilowatt-Hour (kWh). In Louisville, that’s currently $0.07068 kWh.

To create a formula, and we’ll assign those numbers to variables:

W = Watt usage
C = Cost per kWh

Formula to calculate the cost to run your server…

…per day: (W / 1000) x 24 x C

…per month: (W / 1000) x 730 x C

…per year: (W / 1000) x 8760 x C

What we’re doing is:

Converting Watts into Kilowatts by dividing W by 1000
75 Watts / 1000 = 0.075 Kilowatts
Then multiply those Kilowatts x 24 hours in a day to get kWh
0.075 Kilowatts x 24 hours = 1.8 kWh
Finally, multiply the kWh x the Cost per kWh
1.8 kWh x $0.07068 = $0.12 per day

Example: (75 Watts / 1000) x 24 hours x $0.07068 kWh = $0.12 per day

You can multiply that number by 365 days to get your cost per year = $43.80

Tip – Skip The Math Anxiety

If you don’t feel like doing the math above, just take your Watt (W) and Cost per kilowatt hour (C) and use the online calculator here:
http://mathmerlin.com/

The online calculator shows you the cost per hour, day, week, month and year all at once.

ARE WE GREENER?

So how does the new WHS 2011 Microserver compare to the old junker? I measured both servers while streaming a 24 GB .WTV video file from them.

OLD Celeron whitebox WHS v1 uses 122 Watts
Cost to run: $0.21 per day / $6.29 per month / $75.54 per year
NEW HP ProLiant Microserver WHS 2011 uses 46.5 Watts
Cost to run: $0.08 per day / $2.40 per month / $28.79 per year

WINNER = NEW HP Microserver with WHS 2011

Has 2 x the storage as the old box
Has 3 x the RAM as the old box
Uses 60% LESS power
Costs me $46.75 LESS per year to run

I had no idea how much juice that old garbage PC was using. I just assumed that a Celeron would use less power because, well, it’s slower. Right?

Obviously, that $46.75 cost savings per year doesn’t pay for even one hard drive in the new server, but that’s not the point. The old box was gimpy, and the hardware had to be replaced to go to the 64-bit platform anyway. The point is that it’s easy to use less energy by making smart hardware choices – choices that still perform REALLY well. The power savings on the new server will more than pay for the cost of the P3 Kill A Watt. The leftover money savings is icing on the cake.

CALL TO ACTION

I encourage you to use a Kill A Watt to see how much juice your server rack or office is burning. You can check the equipment one piece at a time, or just plug a power strip (or your UPS) into the Kill A Watt and check it all at once.

If you have a device that kicks on and off, like a mini fridge or an air conditioner, you can use the KWH button instead of the Watt button and come back an hour later to see the accumulated result. Measuring your electric usage is now quick, easy, and you just must might save yourself some dough.

Rating: 10.0/10 (5 votes cast)

May 19, 2011March 28, 2023

The Shirt Off My Back: DIY: How to Repair Cracks in a Concrete Driveway

Concrete is one of the most durable construction materials available. Thanks to its strength and versatility, you will find concrete all over your property in places like your foundation, front porch and of course, your driveway. There are many styles of concrete driveways, and they often look great for many years. Unfortunately, sometimes cracks can form in the concrete. If left unrepaired, these cracks will grow and cause more significant damage to the driveway structure, not to mention they’ll become an eyesore. The good news for the DIY enthusiast is that the sooner you tackle these cracks, the easier it will be to repair them on your own. Take a look at our DIY concrete driveway repair guide below for helpful tips, learn more.

4 DIY Tips of How to Resurface a Concrete Driveway

1. Repairing Surface Cracks

Although they are not signs of any serious damage, surface cracks on a newly poured concrete driveway, known as crazing, are often unpleasant to look at after a while. They also can lead to worse cracks over time, as water is able to seep into these spaces. There are many easy-to-use concrete resurfacing products you can find at a local home improvement store. Simply apply this to the surface using a long-handled squeegee.

2. Filling Hairline Cracks

A driveway crack that is less than 1/4” wide is known as a hairline crack. Like crazing, these cracks aren’t serious to the structure of the driveway, but they may become serious if left unchecked. You can easily fill these cracks with a specific concrete filler that comes in a caulking tube.

3. Patching Larger Cracks

Anything bigger than the 1/4” size we previously discussed can often be a sign of more significant driveway damage. In these cases, when cracks are larger and more jagged, you may want to consider bringing in a professional to handle the job. If you are still willing to handle the cracks yourself however, there are plenty of quality items made for large crack filling on concrete surfaces. You can definitely benefit by choosing a self-levelling crack filler so you can get a smooth finish as you fill and spread.

For major driveway cracks, it can be best to mix your own concrete as needed. This will not only be easier, but it can save you a lot of money you would otherwise spend on pre-mixed compounds. When you do use this large amount of concrete, be sure to do so on a dry day with low humidity. You may also want to use a quick-dry formula if you need to use your driveway as soon as possible.

4. Time to Call the Pros

Some patch jobs are just too much for the average homeowner to handle. In these cases where perhaps the entire concrete slab needs replacing, you are better off getting some professional pavers to handle the job. This will not only save you plenty of work and hassle, but you may also actually save money in the long run, as an experienced team of concrete pavers will make sure your replacement slab will go for years without cracking. This is also a better option if you have a stamped or patterned concrete driveway which will require more than a basic patch job.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

March 4, 2011March 4, 2011

Favorite Tech Friday – Targus 4-Outlet Travel Surge

Product: Targus Travel Power Outlets with Surge Protection
Manufacturer: Targus
Part #: APS03US
MSRP: $19.99 US
Street Price: about $15 US
URL: http://www.targus.com/us/productdetail.aspx?regionId=7&sku=APS03US

MY RATING

DESCRIPTION

Fantastic 4-port travel-sized surge protector. Great for sharing power in airports, charging your stuff in hotel rooms, or plugging in for presentations.

PROS

Illuminated power indicator
4 outlets (most travel models have only 3 outlets)
Wide spacing on outlets to accommodate power bricks
Rated to 300 joules
Clamping voltage 330 volts
Super-light (0.5 lbs)
Small form factor

CONS

No on/off switch
No USB charging ports
Power cord is straight down (45 degree angle would be nicer)
Not for international use (220/240 volts – see note below)
Warranty is only one-year

WHY IT’S ONE OF MY FAVORITE PIECES OF TECH

This adapter is as light as a travel umbrella and takes up about the same amount of space. It’s so light, I usually forget that it’s in my bag.

If you travel a lot domestically, you know what a pain it is to find a place to plug in and charge all of your gadgets. Unless you’re at a super-power-friendly airport (like PHX) you’re probably unlikely to find multiple open outlets. This has great outlet spacing, it’s very sturdy, and doesn’t get hot when all of the outlets are in use.

Note: If you need a travel 4-port that works internationally with 220/240 volts, check out the Outlets To Go power strip from Monster:
http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=3842
I picked the Targus over the Monster because I don’t need 220 and it’s smaller than the Monster.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

February 25, 2011

Favorite Tech Friday – IOGEAR External USB-to-DVI

Product: USB 2.0 External DVI Video Card
Manufacturer: IOGEAR
Part #: GUC2020DW6
Retail Price: $99.99 US
Street Price: about $75 US
URL: http://www.iogear.com/product/GUC2020DW6/

MY RATING

DESCRIPTION

The IOGEAR USB 2.0 External DVI Video Card instantly adds an additional high resolution DVI display through your USB 2.0 port. Install the driver, plug the adapter into the USB 2.0 port, plug in your monitor, and you’re ready to go. This is a killer way to add a third (or fourth) monitor to your laptop or desktop PC.

PROS

No external power source needed
Supports a max resolution of 1920×1080
Works with XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.4+
Supports 32 or 64-bit OS
You can plug up to 6 of these into a computer
3-year warranty

CONS

Fine for 1920×1080 spreadsheets, docs or web, but not HD video
Monitors blink for a few moments when coming out of sleep mode
Must be plugged into a USB slot (not a non-powered USB hub)

WHY IT’S ONE OF MY FAVORITE PIECES OF TECH

I’m a multi-monitor kind of guy (at least dual-monitors, but sometimes as many as six). You can never have too many monitors, especially when you’re doing research or remote support. Even with a docking station, you’re likely to max out a notebook PC at 2 monitors. These things are awesome! When I want to watch full-screen HD video, I just make sure to park that video player on a monitor that’s physically attached to the ‘high performance’ video card, and not on an a ‘USB’ monitor.

Note: IOGEAR also makes a USB-to-VGA version (#GUC2015V) which is cheaper, but it only goes up to a max resolution of 1280×1024.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

March 11, 2010March 11, 2010

Amazon Kindle 2 – From an SBS Geek Perspective

I have a lot of reading to do and I need to plow through an average of 40-80 pages from books on a daily basis. (That excludes 180-220 emails per day, blogs and websites). I don’t know if that number is high or low by your standards, but I find that each year the amount of reading I need to do always goes up.

Now, even though I’m a geek, I don’t want to be a nerd. And carrying a fake book around is getting pretty deep into nerd territory. But i figure that with features like playing MP3s and cellular wireless, that swings me back over to the geek camp. So, after an inordinate amount of online research, I purchased a Kindle 2 from Amazon.com. I picked the Kindle 2 model over the Kindle DX for several reasons.

My considerations for which Kindle to purchase:

Note: My winner for each category is shown in the far right column, and the spec I like best is highlighted in under each Kindle. Keep in mind that this is based on my research, not official Amazon specs / info.

Also: You can click on any picture for a larger view.

SPECS

	Kindle 2	Kindle DX	Winner
Weight	*10.2 oz.*	18.9 oz.	K2 – 46% lighter
Overall size	*8” x 5.3”*	10.4” x 7.2”	K2 – 25% smaller
Screen size	6”	9.7”	DX – 2.5 x bigger
Resolution	800×600 @167ppi	1200×824 @150 ppi	N/A
Max # books	1,500	*3,500*	DX – 2,000 more
Storage	2 GB, 1.4 usable	*4 GB, 3.3 usable*	DX – 1.9 GB more
Battery life	Up to 1 week	Up to 1 week	N/A
Free Wireless	Yes	Yes	N/A
Free Case	No	No	N/A
Price	*$259 US*	$489 US	DX – 47% cheaper

GOOD – The DX has 2x the screen & 2x the storage.

BAD – The DX has nearly 2x the weight and 2x the cost.

WINNER – At half the price and half the weight, I opted to buy the Kindle 2.

OK, so all that looks good on paper, but what about the real test? How does this really look and feel? Let’s look at some key categories.

SIZE
As I mentioned in a previous post, I hate hauling around bulky or unnecessary items. When it comes to packing your toolkit or travel bag, size matters. Here is the K2 next to some everyday items for perspective: 4GB Zune, dollar bill, K2 & Matt’s new book. (The Kindle 2 is shown in the optional case)

The K2 is definitely smaller than a standard geek book, not as wide as a dollar bill, slightly thicker than a Zune, & a lot thinner than my Palm Treo Pro phone (not shown).

READABILITY
In spite of the resolution and poor focus of my camera phone, you have to see the screen to believe it.

When I unboxed the Kindle 2, I thought there was a sticker on it, but that was the actual screen.

Other than the background having a gray tinge to it (rather than a true white) it looks like a real printed page. For me the gray was a bit distracting at first, but I’m already used to it. The picture above is showing my website, not an eBook. The camera phone doesn’t do the Kindle justice. This is a VERY impressive screen.

GLARE
Though contrary to popular belief, geeks do go outside in the sun for things other than driving to a customer site to fix a computer. Here is the Kindle 2 outside at noon with the sun behind me as I took the picture.

That’s full daylight, no clouds, with the sun shining right on it.

If you try to use the Kindle as a mirror, it is possible to get a flare on the screen, but I really had to aim just right to get this much glare.

Just a slight shift and the sun spot was gone. Readability outside is as-good, if not better than indoors.

WEB BROWSING
The Kindle is designed to access the web, not to surf it. The screen shots above show that you can indeed surf the web though and read blogs and such. Just don’t expect a desktop PC web experience.

READING PDF DOCUMENTS
One of the killer features for me (and pretty much the primary reason I bought the Kindle) was the native ability for the Kindle 2 to read PDF documents. You just plug in your USB / charging cable and the Kindle shows up in Windows Explorer like a USB drive.

Drag-and-drop, you’re done. I have gobs of Microsoft Press books that include a CD in the back with a PDF version of the book. You can just plug in the Kindle, insert the CD, and drag and drop the PDF into the Kindle.

GOOD – All the PDF documents I tested rendered accurately on the Kindle.

BAD – Many PDFs are smaller on the 6” screen than they would be in real life, making them harder to read. And the cool font size changing feature doesn’t work on PDFs as far as I can tell.

MORE GOOD – Even though the text is smaller, I was able to search PDFs, bookmark them, and the Kindle remembered which page I left off reading.

MORE BAD – I couldn’t add notes or highlights to a PDF like I could with a ‘real’ kindle book.

Small fonts aside on PDFs, this feature still rocks.

FILE CONVERSION
The drag and drop on the Kindle 2 means I didn’t even have to email the document to Amazon for conversion like the Kindle 1. I did send a PDF to “name”@free.kindle.com (the way to convert files to the Kindle AZW format without the $0.15/MB wireless fee), but that has a file limit of 5 MB.

For a test I took the 1.92 MB “Windows Server 2008 Technical Overview.pdf” file and sent it to Amazon for conversion. It came back to me in under 2 minutes as an AZW file that only weighed 5.4 KB. I pulled the AZW file into the Kindle 2 and it was just my sig line from the e-mail. A few seconds later another email came in from Amazon with an attached PDF but now it was called “Windows_Server_2008_Technical_Overview.pdf” and was the exact same size as the original. It still doesn’t change font sizes in the Kindle, but it works the same as before the ‘conversion’. I suspect I’ll be spending a lot of time learning the ins and outs of file conversion because I’d like to be able to shrink and grow the text if possible on a PDF.

OPTIONS
The only option I recommend (other than a warranty if you’re the fumblefingers type) is the Amazon Kindle Black Leather Cover.

At $39.99 US, it’s not cheap by any stretch, but then again it’s not cheaply made either. It fits like a glove, and it still gives you access to the important bits for charging and such. I wonder how long the elastic band / strap will last. Still, I think that the leather cover is a must-have.

VERDICT
So far I’m a very happy camper. This is the best (and most fun) technical purchase I’ve made since I got my Acer Aspire One netbook. The Kindle 2 can do text-to-speech and there’s supposed to be experimental support for MP3s, but I don’t care about that. This is a great device as-is.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

August 6, 2009